Amanda Palmer's Australian Affinity

Amanda ‘F-cking’ Palmer, one of the world’s most outspoken musicians talks Sydney Festival and Opera House nudity.

Jan 14, 2014 3:37am

Photograph by Kambriel

Amanda Palmer gets called ‘controversial’ more often than most people are called anything at all. The musician, burlesque performer and occasional Internet mayhem-maker - who first burst onto the scene with The Dresden Dolls in the early ‘00s - is currently in town for a ten night solo stint at The Sydney Festival’s Spiegeltent. We pulled her aside to ask her how it’s going.

What are you looking forward to seeing while you’re here?I just saw Scotch and Soda in the Renaldo tent, and they were fantastic. Limbo will be great - it’s a bunch of international circus performers who put this show together with music by Sxip Shirley. There’s also a wonderful teeny, weeny little venue near my tent in the festival village called ‘Folk In A Box’ and it fits one audience member, and one musician. You crawl into this box and it’s just you and a musician alone in the dark, and the musician plays you a song.

Are you going to make a cameo in the box?I may do. I went in there and heard a fantastic folk musician the other night, and I just sat there thinking ‘I want to stay at Sydney Festival forever’. It’s just perfect.

It’s not a box, but you’re playing a really intimate venue– how does that affect your performance? It has the pleasant effect that playing in a small venue always has, which is that I can see everybody’s faces. I don’t feel like I’m playing to an amorphous crowd, I feel like I’m playing to a bunch of human beings, which I really like. The tent itself is such a magical, transformative space. When you step through that wooden door you feel like you are in another world. I’ve played in tents like this all over the world, and they all have the same magical effect on people. People just walk in there and they feel more open to whatever experience is going to be thrown at them.It’s so different from heading down to your corner nightclub which is there, will always be there, and already has a set of expectations around it.

Is there anyone you’re especially excited to be sharing this space with?I love that the Spiegeltent has become a cultural institution for my friends and me. We all feel so at home there. The fact that Meow Meow is guesting with me, and we’ve been in this tent together in Edinburgh and New York and London. It’s almost like we’re gypsies and our home gets to travel with us. There’s something really wonderful about that. One of the reasons I took this gig is because Sxip Shirey is in the show after me – he’s in Limbo – and he’s one of my oldest friends from New York. So when Sydney Festival approached me with the offer, and told me that Sxip was in the spot after me, I could already picture what it was going to be like, surrounded by all my acrobat friends.A lot of touring is like that, you make decisions around where you’re going to be, and who you’ll be drinking with, and whether or not your life is going to have good energy in it, or negative energy.

What are some of the other differences between playing ten shows in one place, rather than the same show in ten places? Touring in rock clubs can be really dark and negative, you’re around a lot of people who hate their jobs, but playing at the festival is totally different. Everyone is optimistic and enthusiastic and there’s always something exciting happening.One of the things that happens on tour is you have your set of controls, and your set of variables, being in the tent every night means you can settle in and control your environment, which allows you to play with your performance more. That’s just a gift. When you’re used to touring and having to sound check every day, and deal with a brand new set of problems every day, playing in the tent is just a miracle!

Where does your affinity with Australia come from?I think it comes from Australia being awesome, in a way that particularly resonates with me and my needs. I have an allergy to the cold, both emotional and physical. But I think it’s a two way street.Explaining why I love Australia is hard, because there’s just this kind of magical connection. It’s like trying to explain why I love New York, I just get out at a subway station and I feel instantly happy. And I feel the same way walking around any given street in Sydney or Melbourne.There’s also a series of connections through Edinburgh, because I do the Fringe Festival there every year, and there’s this Melbourne-Edinburgh exchange, that is how I met Meow Meow and Tom Dickens and Mikelangelo and all these other Melbourne based artists.When I first came here it was as a 24 year old street performer in 2000, before I even met Brian and started the Dresden Dolls, I fell in love. I’m in love with the landscape and the people and the idea. All of the things that I love, good food, warmness, cool people, crazy artists and plentiful juice bars, they all happen to be in this one place!

What is your juice of choice?
Honestly, the more complicated the better. I basically want all of the things. I am particularly happy if there’s passion fruit or Acai in the complication.

Without sound-check, how are you spending your days?
Today I had a really magical day. I walked over to the Sydney Opera House to plan some hijinks. I can’t officially announce it yet, but I’m going to be doing an event outside of the Opera House in about a week. It’s going to be very special, and possibly very naked.

If we want to watch this very special, very naked thing outside the Opera House, what medium will it be announced on?
The medium of, surprise surprise, the internet. Actually, after my meeting with the Opera House I wondered down into the Luminarium, which is set up outside the Opera House and if you get a chance to see that, you have to before it leaves town. It’s not what you think. You go inside and it’s this spiritual, meditative sculpture made of light. It’s just magic, like being in a church. It’s really beautiful.This city is rocking it at the moment.